Glaxo pays $300 million for 23andMe genetic data

If you’ve ever wondered what the mail-away gene-testing service 23andMe was doing with all the personal and family bio-information collected from its 5 million customers, here’s one answer: Selling it to GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug giant, so Big Pharma can use your information to develop treatments for genetic defects, boosting sales and profits.

Glaxo said Wednesday that it will invest $300 million in 23andMe, the Mountain View gene-testing company best known for its retail kits that generate reports designed to suggest where your ancestors hail from. The company says more than four-fifths of 23andMe customers — or over 4 million people — agreed when they signed up with the service to let their data be used for research, and now Glaxo is going to use it.

Anticipating privacy concerns that people who sent samples to 23andMe will be publicly identified as subject to genetic diseases, the companies stressed that they “have stringent security protections in place when it comes to collecting, storing and transferring information about research participants,” including data encryption.

Glaxo said that it plans “an exclusive four-year collaboration that will focus on research and development of innovative new medicines and potential cures, using human genetics as the basis.” Glaxo plans to put 23andMe’s “large-scale genetic resources” collected from its consenting customers, together with Glaxo’s own science and marketing, to “discover novel drug targets” for “serious unmet medical needs.”

“We are excited about this unique collaboration, as we know that drug targets with genetic validation have a significantly higher chance of ultimately demonstrating benefit for patients and becoming medicines,” said Hal Barron, president of research and development and chief scientific officer at Glaxo. “Partnering with 23andMe, an organization whose vision and capabilities are transforming the understanding of how genes influence health, will help to shift our research and development ... to be ‘driven by genetics.’”Barron is a former Genentech executive.

Many 23andMe customers have asked for “cures or treatments” for genetic diseases, 23andMe CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki said in a statement. The use of “genetic and phenotypic information” provided by consenting 23andMe customers, combined with Glaxo’s “incredible expertise and resources in drug discovery,” she said, “can more quickly make treating and curing diseases a reality.”

Glaxo and 23andMe say the drug company will use the genetic data to improve the selection of conditions that can be treated by precision medicine; learn more about genetic “pathways and mechanisms” for disease; and identify patients who are more likely to respond to genetically tailored treatment.

The agreement with 23andMe “could substantially change the cost it takes to develop drugs, or put differently, we could develop twice as many drugs for the same amount of money,” Barron said. “We see it as critical to our future strategy.”

The two companies also could work together on programs that 23andMe has initiated in areas including immunology, cancer, heart disease, skin disorders and liver disease, according to Richard Scheller, who joined the startup in 2015 as chief science officer.

The 4 million-plus customers who agreed to let their data be used could help enable the discovery of a significant number of novel associations from a diverse range of people, which would not otherwise be possible, Glaxo added. It will “allow more effective identification and recruitment of patients for clinical studies” by helping identify patients with a particular disease or with genes prone to specific conditions. That will help speed up clinical research, the company said.

The deal allows Glaxo to extend the relationship for a fifth year. And 23andMe says it already has “a portfolio of early stage therapeutic research programs across a wide range of disease indications” that might be included in the research.